AEMO report urges 19 strategies to manage risks posed by wind farms to power grid

THE mothballed power station at the centre of the February blackout controversy has plugged back into the grid, as the final report into the statewide outage urges better measures to manage risks posed by wind farms to the power grid.

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• FIRST REPORT: Multiple faults led to SA blackout
• SECOND REPORT: Why SA wind farms didn’t ride the storms

THE mothballed power station at the centre of the February blackout controversy has plugged back into the grid, as a key report into the statewide outage urges better measures to manage risks posed by wind farms to the power grid.

The Australian Energy Market Operator’s report, released this morning, recommends 19 strategies to curb threats posed by high-speed wind gusts that are rapidly changing direction.

These will focus on areas with a large concentration of wind farms, such as near Snowtown in the state’s Mid North.

They also concentrate on dealing with wind speeds forecast to be too great for the turbine to cope with to continue generating power.

Earlier reports found wind turbines unable to cope with a sudden loss of voltage after transmission pylons collapsed had shut down, contributing to a cascading series of problems which caused the September 28 statewide blackout.

Further recommendations involve AEMO working with transmission operator ElectraNet to review how to better protect the state’s grid if there is another statewide blackout.

It comes as national market operator has conceded it was advised not long before 90,000 homes went without power in the height of summer that Pelican Point would take “extended” time to fire up.

Pelican Point power station in 2001.

Late Monday, the second unit of the French owned gas-fired power station was available to be switched on. It was the first time it had made an offer to pump power into the grid since it was mothballed in 2015.

The company said the reason for the change was it has excess gas at the site.

However, other sources have suggested it was linked to the closure of Victoria’s coal-fired Hazelwood power station, which was also owned by French company Engie.

Three of Hazelwood’s units were shut down on Monday, three would be turned off on Tuesday and the last two would go offline on Wednesday.

Pelican Point’s 240MW second unit sat idle during the February 8 blackout.

In a statement responding to questions from Senator Nick Xenophon, AEMO said Engie — owner of Pelican Point — had provided two reports prior to February 8 which showed its 240MW second unit had “no availability”.

“AEMO was also aware during recent discussions with Engie that it had limitations in its ability to source gas for that unit and extended time frames to start the unit if gas was available,” AEMO stated.

SA Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis has criticised AEMO’s actions in February while Premier Jay Weatherill said he had concerns about the operator investigating the September blackout given its role managing the grid.

“We have those concerns, but we hope it’s an exercise which has been carried out with due care,” Mr Weatherill said.

Senator Xenophon criticised the Federal Government’s announcement on Monday it had commissioned the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to review retail electricity prices that would report in June next year.

“If we don’t sort this out in the coming months we will see tens of thousands of jobs being lost and investors not wanting to invest in the county,” he said, warning that power prices could jump “20 to 30 per cent” by June because of government inaction.

He said that unless the Government came up with a “locked in” plan to fix the energy crisis, such as an emissions intensity scheme, NXT would not support company tax cuts for businesses with a turnover greater than $10 million.

Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten said “industry is seeing tens of thousands of jobs at risk” because of domestic gas shortages.

But Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said the Government was tackling energy price rises through the ACCC review, finding ways to get more gas into the domestic market and backing battery storage as well as Snowy Hydro 2.0.

In Question Time, he revealed O’Leary Walker Wines was considering spending $20,000 on diesel generators after its energy bill had gone up by 50 per cent to $50,000 in the last year.

“(It) means they can’t employ as many people as they otherwise would,” he said.

Mr Weatherill, who has advocated for an EIS, dismissed suggestions that the rapid uptake in wind energy for SA had weakened its stability.